Pretty Boy's final months were spent 1n• hiding out
By Lois Firestone police a penciled message on to themselves - there were no TORIES ABOUT PRETTY the back of a business postcard raucous parties or get togethers SBoy Floyd's final days have - Dated June 20, 1933 and with visiting friends. If neigh melded into Columbiana Coun mailed from Springfield, Mis bors questioned anything it ty folklore - Sprucevale Road souri, it read "Dear Sirs: I, was why the two men never farm wife Ellen Conkle, for Charles Floyd want it made went out to a job. Living on the instance, enjoyed a brief. cele known that I did not partici "lam" was worse than doing brity and is still remembered pate in the massacre of officers hard time in prison, he wrote because she prepared the at Kansas City. Charles Floyd." to his family. Floyd had always desperado's last "fit for a king During the first six months liked to cook and spent hours meal" of spareribs, homebaked before the murders, Floyd was over a stove, stirring up spagh bread and rice pudding. And in Oklahoma with Adam etti sauce or baking his favorite for years afterward, people Richetti, the last of his many dessert, apple pie. For most of talked about the expert mark companions, visiting his former his waking hours, Richetti manship of East Liverpool wife Ruby and son Dempsey drank whiskey - prohibition policeman Chester Smith who and others in his family. By had been repealed in December winged Floyd in the arm in a September, though, worried 1933. The others played pitch vain attempt to "save him" for that the "feds" were dosing in and double solitaire to pass the trial. and hoping to hide out until dragging hours, or they lis But what was he doing in the authorities gave up their hunt, tened to the radio and read area in the first place? And Floyd and Richetti said good detective magazines - Floyd why did Floyd foolishly bye to friends and relatives and picked up a copy of the Buffalo emerge from his self-imposed headed east with two girls Courier-Express every day to exile after 14 months of suc they'd picked up, Buelah and keep up with Hoover's raids cessfully eluding J. Edgar Rose Baird. and manhunts. Hoover and the Federal Bureau They stopped briefly in Can Twelve long months passed, of Investigation.? field where Floyd read a story, but Floyd's name continue to Charles "Choe" Floyd's illustrated with sketches, in an crop up almost every day with death warrant was signed and Ohio newspaper which sug rumors about whe·re he was irrevocably sealed 16 months gested that Pretty Boy was the hiding out or what he was before his death on the Conkle ghost of Jesse James risen from doing: He was seen every farm on the evening of Mon the grave. Pleased, he scribbled where, on both coasts on the day, Oct. 22, 1934. The instru a thank-you note to the staff same day. He had joined the ment was the Kansas City Mas artist: "Thanks for the compli Chinese army, he was negotiat Walter Floyd, holding baby Emma, poses with his family in sacre, the wanton murders of a ments and the fictures of me in ing with a Hollywood film Adairsville, Georgia in 1907. Others in the family (from left) federal agent and four other your paper. I'I be gone before company for his life story, he are Ruby, Ruth, Bradley, mother Mamie and Charley. men shortly after 7 a.m. on you get this. Jesse James was was dead from old gunshot June 17, 1933 as they emerged no punk himself. I'm not as wounds, he was dying from Oklahoma. His money dwindling, Floyd from Kansas City's Union Sta bad as they say I am. They just blood poisoning, he was living The major reason was the gave Rose Baird $600 to buy a tion. Head G-Man J. Edgar wouldn't leave me alone after I in Mexico, Virginia and Arkan headline he'd read eight days Ford two-door sedan, and Hoover saw the chance to got out. Yours truly, Chas. A. sas, he'd had his hair dyed red earlier in the Buffalo-Courier about 3 a.m. on October 19 they blame the murders on Floyd Floyd." and grown a beard. Express which read: U.S. Men locked the door of the apart and put him away once and for Their destination was Buffa John Dillinger was shot Solve Massacre of 5 in Kansas ment and traveled south. Hell's all - whether he was caught lo. On September 21 the quartet down in front of Chicago's Bio City... Pretty Boy Floyd, two Half Acre was a small settle dead or alive didn't concern rented an apartment in a non graph Theater on July 22, 1934, others named by federal agents ment along the Ohio River on them. Nor did it matter that descript section of the city, liv and Hoover announced that he in railway station tragedy. · the border of Ohio and Pen "eyewitnesses" were unreliable ing on cash the two men had was naming Floyd as the coun Government witness James nsylvania operated by a local and no actual evidence pointed accumulated from previous try's Public Enemy Number LaCapra had placed Floyd at character, State Line Jenny, and to his guilt. bank robberies. Floyd and One. Floyd became more and the scene of the crime. The for years bootleggers and bank From then until his death, Juanita adopted the names Mr. more cautious as the summer news set off a flood of conjec robbers had found refuge there. Floyd vehemently denied hav and Mrs. George Sanders and merged into fall, and then on ture about Floyd's whereabouts Floyd's plan was to stay there ing anything to do with the Richetti and Rose were Mr. and October 19, Floyd decided to and stories of heavily-armed slaughter. Shortly after it hap Mrs. Ed Brennan. leave Buffalo and return home posses on the hunt for Floyd pened, he sent Kansas City They lived quietly and kept to the familiar hills of and Richetti. See PRETIY BOY, page 8 $~~~ ?:}t/~~~a~f ~~~~ Women speak Servicemen made supreme sacrifice
By Lois Firestone IGHTY SIX SERVICEMEN Ein the Salem area paid Vera Chamberlain of North the supreme sacrifice in Benton dropped off an issue of defending their country during the Feb. 22, 1895 issue of the World War II. Citations and Salem Daily News, and the awards for daring feats of hero interesting thing about it is that ism were conferred on local the entire newspaper that day soldiers, sailors, marines and was written and edited - and air force men during the war. filled with advertisements the We ran across the accom women solicited - by the Dor panying photo of the Salem cas Society of Salem. District Honor Roll for World The venture was a suc War II in the June 5, 1956 edi cess;the Dorcas Society received tion of the Salem News which $500 and the 3,700 copies print printed the names below - ed weren't enough to keep up we're thinking this may be the with demand. sign reader Howard Krause William H. Mullins paid $25 asked us about. He was won as the highest bidder for the dering what had happened to silk copy. A deluxe gilt edition, the the memorial which stood the first of its kind published in in front of the Memorial Build the country by a newspaper, ing during the war. So far, we went on sale at Miss A. R. Grif haven't heard what became of fiths' store for 50 cents a copy. it, but maybe we'll hear from a The writers devised a list of reader who knows. things "We Should Like to According to records kept by See," among them: "A public the Salem News up to May 15, library. More water, more light. 1945, the following comprise Street crossings cleared in the war dead from World War muddy weather. The hollows II: on our streets filled as soon as SALEM Pfc. V. R. McBane Jr. Cpl. Emmett R. Sommers, Pfc. Yarian, Pfc. Marion C. they appear. The snow plow Pvt. Delbert E. Barnard, Petty Marine Cpl. Carl McCave, George T. Spack, Pvt. Lawrence Zepemick. kept near the sidewalk when Officer C. Theodore Bowling, Pfc. Clark E. McCowin, Lt. E. Stayton, Sgt. Leward D. Stof WINONA on its round. Lt. Arthur W. Brian, S/Sgt. Fre Robert E. McGaffic, Cpl. James fer, Pvt. Ray A. Stoffer, Pvt. Pvt. Glenn W. Bennett, Pvt. "A resting place for the dead derick W. Bruderly, Pfc. John J. E. Mclaughlin, Pvt. Marion E. John P. Sutherin, Pvt. Charles Charles Wolford, Technician that would not be a disgrace Comanisi, Pfc. John J. Craw McLaughlin, Pfc. Lawrence M. R. Taylor, Pvt. Charles Sweit Gerald Wheaton. for the living. An end to the ford, Lt. Wallace J. Davis, Pfc. McMichael, Pvt. Charles E. zer, Pfc. Jack Thompson, Pvt. DAMASCUS mutilation of shade trees which Zeno J. Buda, Pvt. Walter G. Martin, Pfc. Cessna E. Mackin Earl A. Trimmer. Pfc. Robert Spencer. has been done for the benefit of Eastek, Fireman le Joseph J. tosh, Pvt. Ralph A. Mentzer, Lt. Pfc. Stanton Trimmer, Lt. LEETONIA grades, electric light wires, etc. Fink, Pfc. Ernest R. Fluharty. William Miller, Pvt. Raymond Robert B. Waggoner, Cpl. War Technician Eugene Altomare, Tramps who 'can not find Pfc. Alexander Fratila Jr., Moore, Flight Officer Donald ren E. Tullis, Pfc. William Gerald Brown, Sgt. Eugene Cal- work' earn their lodging and W. Murdock, Liaison Officer Welch, Seaman 2c Ned C. Pvt. Daniel F. Fromm, Pfc. Wil Tum to next page ~ breakfast by repairing East liam C. Gamble, Lt. George Stanton H. Null. Wells, First Sgt. Noble W. Main street. Gibson Jr., Pfc. Ray A. Griffith, Roy A. Overton, S/Sgt. Wells, Pvt. Martin Werner Jr., "A new school building to Cpl. Wayne Hinerman, Pfc. Andrew D. Piriak, Sgt. Joseph Sgt. Robert T. Wilson, Lt. Stuart relieve the crowded condition Ernest Hrovatic, Pfc. Kermit Plegge Jr., Pfc. John J. Sheehan, F. Wis~, MM 2c James Lavelle of our schools. The wall of the Johns, Cpl. Glenn King, Air High school freshly papered Cadet William Knepper, Cpl. Arbaugh-Pearce and calcimined. The flat wheel William Paul Loutzenhiser, ~ceive taken off the Garfield avenue Flight Officer Ray E. LeVan, car. A good street to the cemet reeni~en Yesteryears tne ery. A new city hall. An ordi GJ Funeral nance to compel removal of Home Second screens in saloons. Some new ana business blocks on Main street RAY J. GREENISEN 332•4401 ·i between Broadway and Depot OWNER !Fourth 'Tuesaay '' street." every month PERSONAL RECORDS wnenyou ··.:::<·~!; &PLANNING BOOK su6scri6e to Because your last wishes are so important S a[em :/\{f,ws :··,,. PEOPLE WHO KNOW YOU, Ca{{ PEOPLE YOU CAN RELY ON••• TODAY AND TOMORROW. '·:·c'.;·; A htstoru:al Journal .'/I,· ~t Published 2nd & 4th Tuesday ':~.). and t by the Salem News ~U 332-4601 \t. Founded June 8, 1991 ·c:~: Antique Shop )· l'u.. J'l"n ~'uur ,,., 161 N L" In A. ,;; 1 1 Start receiving a[[ :~.·.. . mco ii.Ve. ~·yj;1 627-9971 T1 .'.'1~ ~:;~;;·;:11n:,7'.~u ,:. "'l• ' r 1 1 Stark ~;. Salem, Ohio 44460 ':if'.i .. "' Open Mon.·Sat. 6 a.m.to 8 p.m. ~:::.~·~:::.::;;··:::,:"::::::,, ,\;·{:~'.~.:.:·:~ ·.::::.:.:.::::.:·~:·::;,·;:::. tlte :Af!,ws l .1hw YOUI•' •J<>U<' ],,. lh
1934 had slowed the customary the First Jesus Name Church. in sky for over 2,000 years seasonal supply of migrant Also a small convenience store, pickers in California and grow El Ranchito. By Rebecca Higbee ers regarded the Okies - brief The labor camp is still in bus Smithsonian News ly - as a godsend. But they iness. Its two-bedroom ply NCE A YEAR, THE SKY came in such overwhelming wood bungalows shelter 130 O over the Washington numbers they quickly became a families, mostly from both Monument turns into a brilliant scourge, and their desperation sides of the Texas-Mexico bor display of colorful and imagi for a few coins was such that der, for $3.50 a day from April native handmade kites as kite growers discovered that by through September. All the lovers of all ages rally to the lowering wages they actually signs are in Spanish. Smithsonian Institution's Kite increased the labor supply. Some buildings remain festival. "It's just like stained Route 66, The Mother Road, A half-dozen of the original glass windows painting the ran from Grant Park in Chicago buildings remain, still sturdy, sky," said the festival founder to Ocean Avenue in Santa now used mostly for storage. and smi thsonian historian Monica. From 1935-39, the One is the old auditorium. It emeritus Paul E. Garber in an height of the migration, flivvers was built of heavy beams and interview before his death last clattered along its 2,448 miles wood-shingle roofs, vintage year at age 93. like ants on a honey trail. WP A construction. Garber had a lifelong fascina One, a rickety Model-A Ford "It's the one the old timers tion with aviation which began flatbed truck, belonged to Gus want to see when they come when he received his first kite tavus Faulconer of Colgate, visiting," said Rigoberto Mar at the age of 5. As a young Okla. After his cotton dried up tinez, who has managed the boy, he organized kite and and blew away, Tave, as he camp the past 20 years. model airplane clubs among was called, mined coal. When "Oh yes," Martinez said. his classmates. He made and the mine closed he sold moon "Folks come by often to look flew a biplane hang glider shine. When he got caught he around, like, you know, a when he was a teenager. He paid a $26 fine, all the money shrine. They look for the slab subsequently dedicated the rest he had, piled his wife and six where they used to live." of his life to collecting and pre kids and all their belongings on Ten-foot-square concrete serving the nation's aviation the truck, swapped his tire jack slabs, arranged in a semicircle, heritage and was the first cura for a tank of gas and hit the were the floors for tents and tor of the Smithsonian's road. In a sense it marked the later for one-room tin hovels lit National Air Museum (now the final chapter in an American by kerosene lamps. Separate National Air and Space saga. Tave Faukoner's grand buildings provided - indoor Museum) when it was estab father had arrived in Oklahoma plumbing! Running water! lished in 1946. Territory from Ohio in a cov Showers! A kitchen dispensed "Garber conceived the idea ered wagon. hot breakfast for a penny. Or for the festival because he ''We often had nothing to you could work it off doing wanted to share his enthusiasm eat, nothing at all, until we got camp chores. for kites with others," Margo to Weedpatch," Tave's son, It also provided blessed relief Brown, Garber' s biographer Carleton, recalls. That was in for the Okie soul, relief from and coordinator of the Kite Fes 1938 when Carlton was 8 years the hatreds and insults, the tival, co-sponsored by The As with the Wright brothers' earlier versions, the 1902 glider old. "I have only the fondest slights and jeers of better Smithsonian Associates and the was essentially a full-size biplane kite. Wilbur (foreground) memories of Weedpatch," he dressed schoolkids: "You're museum, says. The first Smith and Orville flew it as a tethered glider, testing their theories says. nothing but an Okie." Former sonian Kite Festival was 27 of control by wing-warping. The results of the tests further Celebrated labor camp camp residents talk of the years ago. "Garber also wanted refined their aircraft. Weedpatch, south of Bakers mutual support and coopera the Smithsonian to sponsor an field near Lamont, was the tion in the tones of war activity that would include all curator in the Aeronautics to the practical application of location of the Arvin Federal veterans. people, and kite flying is cross Department of the National Air electricity. Migratory Labor Camp cele Thousands of alumni with generational and has no eco and Space Museum. "Kites In the 1820s, George Pocock, brated by John Steinbeck in happy memories of Arvin nomic barriers. The air is free, were flown to signal friendly a creative English schoolteach "The Grapes of Wrath." It was Labor Camp are scattered after all." troops and also to frighten the er, _tested and patented his the first of 13 set up in Califor throughout the state. Kites have been flown for enemy." As early as 105, the design for a new method of nia by President Franklin D. Many, though, have chosen more than 2,000 years. One Romans used kites known as transportation which might Roosevelt's Farm Security not to stray far from Weed legend holds that the kite was dracos - fierce animal-head have put horse breeders and Administration when what patch. Former camper Mary invented in China when a gust figures attached to wind tubes stable hands out of business - began as a labor problem Lynn Chess (Broken Bow, of wind blew off a farmer's hat. - to intimidate their enemies the kite-drawn carriage. became a national catastrophe. Okla.) now runs the Okie Girl and to provide archers with a Pocock' s lightweight char The hat was tethered, so the window vane. Dracos with At the Arvin camp, Carlton Restaurant and Brewery down farmer not only got his hat volant, capable of attaining Faulconer met Betty Wagner, the highway at Lebec. C.A. wings were occasionally speed up to 20 miles per hour back but he also got a great depicted on medieval illustra whose equally desperate family Ross (Blanchard, Okla.), who idea. Little did he know that and carrying as many as five had fled the Texas Panhandle. lived in the camp seven years, tions and drawings, usually in passengers, never caught on, his idea would grow sky high: the form of animals writhing They became childhood now owns a furniture store in Kites, in their many variations, probably because drivers had sweethearts, later married, and Arvin, five miles away, which about horsemen. little control steering or stop was me closest town with a have since been used for mili According to Chinese folk now live in Lake Forest in a tary purposes, scientific experi ping the carriage. splendid house near his insur post ~ffice when it gave the lore, in 800, a surrounded gen But Pocock's kite endeavors camp its name. Ross drops by ments, aeonautical advances eral, in a last-ditch effort to ance business, far from the and just plain fun. did not end there. In 1825, he valley. frequently to spin yarns with escape the enemy, ordered sol put his daughter in an arm When the labor camp Martinez about the good-bad The earliest recorded kite diers to make kites with "hum chair, strapped it to a kite line opened, the community of old days. flight was around 200 B.C., mers" - taut strings or strips and lifted her 300 feet in the Weedpatch, about a mile away, The Okies left an indelible when a Chinese general of bamboo - to fly in the air. Although Ma:'"co Polo consisted of a couple of dozen mark on California, all right. launched a kite over an middle of the night. When the returned from the Orient with small frame houses along a dirt But one thing they brought that enemy's palace to determine wind blew across the strings, it tales of man-lifting kites, road, Alexander's General was not lasting was the stigma the distance between the palace made a ghostly howl that terri Pocock's experiment was the Store, a pool room, a two attached to their nickname. and the wall in order to calcu fied the enemy soldiers 'so first instance of a person being pump Red Wing filling station Mary Lynn Chess's joint is evi late how long to make an inva much that they fled. carried aloft by a kite in the and blacksmith shop. dence of that. sion tunnel. Consequently, for Kites historically have also Western World. Over the years the changes Three generations later, most the next 1,000 years or so, kite been used in scientific investi "Man-lifting kites were used have been minor, but revealing. feel as Betty Faulconer does flying remained a military gations. In 1749, Scottish scien also in wartime, briefly and The general store, on the same about the epithet. activity, used for aerial obser tist Alexander Wilson attached sporadically, to see beyond spot, has been enlarged into a "It made me mad to be vation, signaling and eventual several kites to the same line enemy lines," Jakab says. supermarket by Alexander's called Okie when I was grow ly, dropping propaganda fliers. and lifted a thermometer into The late 19th-century proved ing up.," she said. "But, you Kites were used frequently in the air to determine the temp successor, Lupe Gonzalez. know, now I'm rather proud of battle during the Middle Ages erature at different altitudes. Down the road, now paved, is it." and earlier, says Peter Jakab, a This experiment eventually led Tum tu next page ~· '.)'es-terqears 1utSt!ay, Marai 23 1993
By Howard Siner 1859-65) were edited by According to the experts, our greatest help to all other tysburg Address, or the two Associated Press writer Fehrenbacher. Civil War president didn't use inventions." - Inaugurals, and so forth. So He points out: "The tendency speec:\l writers. "Everything Like many of his notable HE REAL ABE LINCOLN one of the appeals of his writ is to associate Lincoln with a that you have by Lincoln is contemporaries, Lincoln was ing is that it's written for thP T isn't completely veiled few really great pieces, such as his," Fehrenbacher says. basically self-taught. He once behind legends. In his own ear, as well as the eye." the Gettysburg Address, which "Except for certain routine said that he went to school ''by Most Americans never heard writing, he speaks for himself. is almost like the secular Lord's things that his secretaries littles" - a few months here Today the 16th president is Lincoln speak; but excerpts and Prayer of our nation. But there drafted and he signed, every and there (less than a year in considered to be one of Ameri transcripts of his speeches were are so many other pieces in thing that appears under Lin all) - during his youthin Ken ca's first modern writers. widely printed. "They were Lincoln's work -- not all of it, coln's name was his creation." tucky and Indiana. readable because they had been 'What we're coming to real by any means - that really The son of illiterate parents ize, more and more, is that the His boyhood discovery of written with an ear to cadence have a literary quality; and that had a lifelong passion for reading was pivotal. It led him and rhythm," Fehrenbacher Lincoln of our literature was are timeless, in that respect, words. Lincoln - that is, he is a liter to read and re-read what few says. and that are transcendent." Lincoln noted in 1859: "Writ- books he came across. Key vol Neither the Biblical nor ary figure," says historian Don Why has so much of what ing, the art of communicating umes: Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Shakespearian touches in Lin E. Fehrenbacher. This view has Lincoln wrote stood the test of thoughts to the mind through Progress," Aesop's "Fables," coin' s stately writing indicated emerged during the 20th time? Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe," a fresh style. But his confident century. the eye, is the great invention Fehrenbacher answers: "He of the world ... great, very Grimshaw's "History of the use of short, bold sentences The major current editions of exemplifies what we look for in United States," Dilworth's "A and direct personal expression Lincoln's speeches and writings _great, in enabling us to con our great literature - intense verse with the dead, the absent, New Guide to the English did anticipate th-e modern were published by The Library emotion under artistic control. Tongue," and Weems' "The brand of English. of America in 1989. Now wide and the unborn, at all distances That's what you have to have. of time and space; and great, Life and Memorable Actions of "Probably what is appre ly available, these two volumes The two things. And he had ciated most," says Fehrenba of collected works (1832-58 and not only in direct benefits, but George Washington." it." Lincoln became an avid cher, "is a kind of -- well, I hate newspaper reader. He enjoyed to be sexist about it -- but a poetry, too; and memorized kind of masculine vigor in the poems by Robert Burns. He language. That has to do with studied Kirkham's "English economy and a sense of what is Grammar" as a young man in the right word." Illinois. To become a lawyer, he Lincoln's distinctive style read Blackstone's "Commenta went bevond his famous ries" and Chitty's "Precedents phrasemaking: "Four score and for a night or two and then go Ford sedan carrying Floyd, drove off, they retrieved their in Pleading," among other seven years ago"; "government on to Dillonvale, a small town Adam and the two Baird sisters firearms and a few blankets works. of the people, by the people, downriver between Steubenvil- was heading north, speeding from the backseat, climbed a His law partner, William for the people"; 'With malice 1e and Wheeling, to visit along Route 7 - the Wellsville hillside and sat down to wait. Herndon, said of Lincoln: toward none; with charity for East Liverpool Road - near a The rest of the story has been "When he was young, he read all," etc. Adam's sister and her husband, shut down brickyard near an repeated many times. The sus the Bible, and when he was of In a telegram to Gen. U.S. Minnie and Henry Sustic. After area called the Silver Switch. picions of Joseph Fryman and age he read Shakespeare. This Grant, on Aug. 17, 1864, Lin a brief stopover, they'd take the Floyd was at the wheel and his son-in-law David O'Hanlon latter book was scarcely ever coln endorsed the Union siege back roads and head out to could barely see the rain-slick who lived on top of the hill out of his mind and his hands." of Petersburg, Va.: "I have seen Oklahoma. road ahead. Suddenly he lost and their call to Wellsville Herndon also reported that your despatch expressing your On Saturday, October 20, the control and the car skidded Police Chief John Fultz. Richet Lincoln, as he read books, liked unwillingness to break your bank in Titusville, not far from into a telephone pole, damag ti's capture when Fultz con to recite the sentences on each hold where you are. Neither Dillonvale, was robbed and ing the auto. After a struggle fronted the two men and Floy page, in an effort to learn by am I willing. Hold on with a two men had made off with d's frantic escape up Route 45 hearing as well as seeing. bulldog grip, and chew and $400 in cash. Likely the culprits they got the car back on the onto Route 30 toward Lisbon. It was an age of oratory, of choke as much as possible." were Floyd and Richetti, but road, but both men knew Finally, tired, dirty and hungry, course. Fehrenbacher, who is a Lincoln's writing grew as he they weren't caught, although they'd have to risk going to a Floyd was cornered on the professor emeritus as Stanford, did. "It was a confidence that some people conjectured that it garage for repairs. Floyd told Conkle farm. His nemesis, Mel stresses the link between writ he developed all along," says could have been the two men Beulah and Rose to take the car vin H. Purvis who had stalked ing and speaking: Fehrenbacher, "although you since it was well known that into Wellsville to find a him for months was there to "All of the most memorable find it fairly early in some of Richetti's relatives lived nearby. mechanic. After it was fixed witness the final moments of passages of Lincoln's writing his writings. He got a sense of Early on the foggy morning they were to come back for the America's Public Enemy Num were written for oral delivery what I suppose we would call of Saturday, October 20 the two men. Before the sisters ber One. first -- if you think of the Get- ·mastery."
d~il. until tqe mid-1920s .to test aboard. "The results ot the tests II brought a resurgence of mili flying to carnivals and festivals ,,-~.;B.,~ . Kites fJ)::? tei;riperatures at different further refined their aircraft," tary interest in kites," the around the world, "kites bring -,i,=:,i? Continued from page 7 f.0.i!.il" altitudes. . Jakab says. Smithsonian's Margo Brown out the kid in everyone," ·:J~-······--- ··-··· r-o- · /1]-:7 The box ]<1t~ also played a The inventor of the tele says. Ironically, the same trait Brown says. "And besides, ··! ~ . vital role in the early develop phone, Alexander Graham Bell, that forced kites out of the they're a great way to meet to be a time of great innovation ment of aircraft structures, was also interested in manned weather business made them people." in kite design. New York jour Jakab says. "The classic biplane flight and developed triangular useful to the U.S. Navy. Box "Most folks love to watch nalist William A. Eddy, who form of many early airplanes in and tetrahedral (four-sided) kites were flown on lines thou- kites in action," she says, which had been flying trains of kites part was derived from Har box kies. The most important sands of feet long from ships in explains the growing atten and found the tails cumber grave's box kite." characteristic of his designs convoys. Wires and cables were dance by both participants and some, redesigned the typical The Wright brothers also was that themodules could be suspended from them to entan spectators - up to 50,000 peo kite s6 that its frame produced used a kite as an effective infinitely combined to produce gle intruding enemy aircraft. ple from all over the world - a keel effect, which gave it sta research tool in their develop greater lifting power. The to the Smithsonian Kite bility, eliminating the need for ment of the first powered airp Smithsonian has a Bell tet Garber invented a kite that Festival. a tail. Most Americans recog lane, Jakab says. In 1899, the rahedral kite in its collections. had another military applica Brown, past president and nize Eddy's kite as the Charlie Wrights made a 5-foot kite tion. He originated ship-to-air With the invention of pow life member of the American Brown kite - a reference to the model of a glider to test their gunnery target kites that had Kitefliers Association, finds kite p0pular comic strip character ered flight, the use of kites to enemy aircraft silhouettes sten theories of control by wing flying relaxing and challenging. who always flies his kite into a warping. "They used the kite to carry meteorological instru ciled on them. "He also "Putting a 'heavier than air' tree. The Smithsonian has an ments into the atmosphere dra designed a system using kites test the control mechanism they object in the air and keeping it planned to use on a full-size matically waned. Airplanes to carry canisters of top secret original Eddy kite in its stable is exhilarating," she says. collection. glider." could now be used to carry information from the ship to an instruments for high altitude Australian scientist Lawrence The glider itself, built a year airplane and then to headquar And it's really q~uite beauti Hargrave invented a kite in later, was essentially a full-size measurements, and besides, ters on land," Brown says. ful, she adds. "Life is full of kite lines posed a small danger 1893 that had greater stability biplane kite. The Wright simple pleasures, and I find to airplane flight. The last U.S. Kites nowadays may not be . and lifting power than previo~s brothers flew it as a tethered kite flying poetic, The kites Weather Bureau kite station kites. The cellular or box kite glider, operating it either from the great scientific tools they dance high in th.e sky, the closed in 1933 at Ellendale, was eagerly adopted by the ground or, when there was were in the past, but they are, strings sing while they fly. meteorologists, and was used enough wind to allow manned North Dakota. of course, still used for recrea They truly have a life of their by the U.S. Weather Bureau flights, kiting it with a pilot "The outbreak of World War tional purposes. From backyard own!"